EMH EarlyModernHistory

 

  Keeping the historical record and its historiography accurate Almost a decade ago, in May, 2014, I was able to go to Trinity Hall in the University of Cambridge to hear John Walter of the University of Essex reflect on the development of his career from his time as an undergraduate in Cambridge, his period at the University of Pennsylvania and, subsequently, as an academic historian on the University of Essex’s campus in Wivenhoe. It was a privilege to be there and to hear him discuss the work of historians who had influenced him as well as the intellectual trajectory of his own studies. One thing, however, did strike me very forcibly on that occasion, namely, that no measures had been taken to record what he had said. That was a misfortune and a loss to future historians. Since then, largely as a result of the deeply regrettable impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, many universities have adopted the practice of allowing their seminars to be accessible via the internet. I can sit...

  Michael Questier: Rome and the Anglicans – and their Histories of the Reformation – LECTURE Map Unavailable Date / time:  12 March, 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm Lectures   External events Location Lambeth Palace Library   In association with the Institute of Historical Research Histories of the post-Reformation Church of (and in) England are, as is well known, often incompatible with each other. Much of the relevant scholarly output of recent times has been taken up with trying to resolve existing contradictory interpretations of what, exactly, happened at and after the Reformation. The same ur-texts (Cranmer, Jewel, Andrewes et al.) are frequently cited as authorities by those who see the English Church in completely different ways. Likewise, political narratives that are technically about the same topic often focus on quite different things. It has never been easy to say exactly what we mean by terms such as ‘puritanism’, ‘Calvinism’, ‘Laudianism’, and so on. Consensus and ...

I have been following the contributions to the debates on the future of British Studies on the NACBS website with considerable interest. There is a degree of pessimism in some of these contributions about the prospects for this field in general and about the employment prospects for existing and aspiring academic historians in particular. There are sound reasons for these apprehensions, not least because governments and universities' administrations across the English-speaking countries are focused on wealth creation, on subjects that improve the performance of their economies like the sciences, technology and mathematics.  Amongst the wider public in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, on the other hand, there is intense interest in the past, in the histories of countries and communities, localities, social groups and individuals. In that sense, historical studies are in robust health and are likely to remain so. It is to the credit of the Royal Historical Society in the United King...

  Mateo Ballester Rodriguez, Los Ecos de un Regicidio.La Recepcion de la Revolucion Inglesa y sus Ideas Politicas en Espana (1640-1660) How the events of the 1640s and 1650s and their consequences are to be assessed is one of the enduring issues that historians of the British Isles have to face. The analysis of their varying interpretations is in itself a subject of continuing interest. By and large, historians based in these islands and in English-speaking countries overseas have shown less interest in and devoted less time to the studies undertaken by historians, by historical sociologists and political scientists in other countries. Nonetheless, such studies do exist and throw an interesting light on how these events were seen and are now interpreted elsewhere. Mateo Ballester Rodriguez’s essay published in 2015 is one such example. It is partly a bibliographical description of the limited printed publications that appeared in the Iberian peninsula and the apparently exiguous ma...